Is Hyvä Your Next Magento Frontend Solution?

Magento, a global name in the eCommerce platform arena, has been the backbone for countless online stores since the year of Inchoo’s inception – 2008. Yet, despite its robust backend capabilities, Magento’s frontend has historically been its Achilles’ heel. In this article, we’ll delve into why Hyvä theme has emerged as the premier choice for many Magento stores.

Traditionally, Magento 2 stores have relied on default themes like Blank or Luma, which, while functional, are relics of a bygone era — outdated and mired in complexity. These two are like old cell phones. They do the job, but they’re not very exciting or easy to use compared to the latest models.

As website technology gets better and better, these themes started to feel out of date and too complicated to work with. New developers that are entering the ecosystem are not interested to work with them. Recognizing this shortfall, Magento agencies have been compelled to innovate, crafting their own frontend themes or frameworks to deal with the limitations of the default offerings.

For this reason, we also created Inchoo Flavored Magento: Performance-driven Magento 2 starting point. Our goal there was to remove less common modules and technologies, giving an enriched user experience with features most merchants need today. It’s an excellent starting point for many Magento stores, particularly those using many frontend extensions

Introducing Hyvä

Meanwhile, in quest for ultimate Magento 2 frontend solution for Magento stores, one theme has consistently stood out from the rest: Hyvä. Embodying simplicity, efficiency, and performance, Hyvä is not merely a theme; it’s a transformative frontend approach that has reshaped the landscape of Magento-powered storefronts.

Reduced Complexity

In the world of website development, the amount of code can be overwhelming. To paint a picture, a typical Magento theme is like a heavy suitcase, stuffed with over 200 JS/CSS resources weighing in at a hefty 1.5 megabytes. In contrast, Hyvä is like a lightweight backpack, smartly packed with just 2 JS/CSS resources, tipping the scales at a mere 0.2 megabytes!

What does this mean for developers? It’s simple: less code equals less complexity. Working with Hyvä is not only easier but also more enjoyable. Hyvä tossed out libraries that lead to many sleepless nights – like RequireJS, Knockout, and UIComponents!

By stripping away the excess, Hyvä offers a streamlined, efficient, and more approachable coding experience. This lean approach doesn’t just save time and effort; it transforms the development process into a more agile and enjoyable journey that will attract new developers to the ecosystem.

Performance: The Hyvä Advantage

In the realm of eCommerce, performance isn’t just a feature, it’s the cornerstone of success. That’s the leap forward Hyvä offers. By significantly trimming down the code sent to users, Hyvä unlocks high performance potential. Fresh out of the box, Hyvä dazzles with a perfect 100/100 score in Google PageSpeed and sails through Core Web Vitals with flying colors.

It’s important to note that these stellar metrics are based on lab conditions, without the common events or tracking scripts that most eCommerce sites employ. However, even when you add those extras, doing something that was super hard with Luma, is way easier with Hyvä. Sure, you’ve got to keep an eye on things to stay speedy, but hitting those top scores isn’t just wishful thinking anymore; it’s quite doable with Hyvä.

The Hyvä Community

Hyvä has become a real hit in the Magento world. It’s like the popular kid in school, but for good reasons. More and more agencies and freelancers are jumping on the Hyvä bandwagon, drawn to its fresh take on Magento. It’s not just a passing fad; it’s turning into a big deal. Every day, more skilled folks are getting their hands dirty with Hyvä, liking what they see, and sticking around. This is a proven product now.

Inchoo & Hyvä

One of these teams is Inchoo. We arrived a bit late to the party, went to one meetup in Niš, Serbia, and we now have a few Hyvä stores in development. Let’s hear the word of our two frontend developers: Igor Tikvić and Josip Oužecky.

Igor, with your first Hyvä project underway, what benefits have you noticed compared to traditional Magento 2 frontend development? Additionally, what challenges have arisen?

So far, I’ve noticed two major advantages. The first one is a simpler architecture; it’s just easier to work with the Hyva theme compared to the default Magento tech stack. The next great thing is that the theme out-of-the box is super fast and provides a solid foundation for achieving high performance scores. Having such a strong starting point is definitely a relief for every frontend developer. Over the years, the Magento community has developed various techniques to enhance site performance, such as critical CSS and advanced JS bundling, but achieving top scores has always seemed like a nearly impossible task.

Regarding the challenges of transitioning to the Hyva theme, adapting to the Tailwind framework and styling in HTML requires a significant mindset shift because it challenges the traditional separation of concerns model, where styles were typically separated from HTML and JavaScript. However, I’m making progress, and with each Tailwind class that I learn, I become more comfortable with the entire concept.

Josip, onboarding new frontend developers has always been challenging in the Magento world. Do you believe that Hyvä will simplify this process?

I strongly believe that Hyvä can significantly simplify the onboarding process for new frontend developers in the Magento ecosystem. The adoption of modern technologies like Alpine.js and Tailwind CSS offers a more favorable learning curve compared to Magento 2’s default frontend technologies like Knockout.js, LESS and Jquery. Also Tailwind CSS is one of the most popular frameworks, while Alpine.js, though less known, is most similar to Vue.js.

What’s next?

In summary, Hyvä has improved the Magento landscape with its clean, efficient approach to frontend development. It’s not only improving performance records, making top scores a reality, but also reducing development time, accelerating your market entry. With Hyvä, you’re not just keeping up; you’re leading the charge.

Is Hyvä the perfect choice for your business? At Inchoo, we don’t believe in one-size-fits-all solutions. We take the time to understand the unique demands of your e-commerce venture, ensuring we recommend a strategy that’s tailored for you. Get in touch with us, and let’s explore how we can support your business’s growth!